The Police recover a Visigoth crown from the 6th century with seven arrested for looting in León and Valladolid

Agents of the National Police have recovered in the province of León a Visigothic crown from the 6th century, silver coins, gold coins from the modern era and other archaeological objects of great historical value after an investigation that left seven detainees in the province of León as allegedly responsible for the crimes of belonging to a criminal group, against historical heritage, money laundering and aggravated theft.

This criminal group, involved in the looting of several deposits in León and Valladolid, used metal detectors, “one of them very sophisticated that allowed them to reach great depths in the terrain,” as reported by the National Police. They later sold the pieces on buying and selling platforms and even at a home.

The investigation began last January when the agents detected that at a numismatic event held in Andalusia a man discreetly offered several gold coins, silver and gold pieces from a unique Visigoth treasure for which he asked for a lot of money.

Researchers estimate that the profit obtained from the sale of these archaeological objects would have exceeded one million euros. The recovered objects will be deposited in the museum of the Junta de Castilla y León as determined.

As the investigations advanced, they discovered that there could be a criminal group dedicated to selling these effects of great historical value illegally.

Once they identified the place where the Visigoth crown could have been looted, they were able to find the exact location, which turned out to be an archaeological site cataloged by the Junta de Castilla y León in the province of Valladolid.

THE AUTHORS USED SOPHISTICATED TOOLS

The Police believe that the perpetrators used very sophisticated tools such as a metal detector with the capacity to reach extreme depth using multi-frequencies, offering a more complete and versatile detection. They also used other more rudimentary tools such as shovels and pickaxes to extract archaeological objects.

Later, these people could be linked to the looting of a site in the province of León, from which they extracted thousands of silver coins and also gold coins from Roman times of great value.

After obtaining the pieces, they cleaned them and cataloged them based on their condition and quality and later put them up for sale on buying and selling platforms or private groups on social networks. They even sold them at the home of one of the members of this group, where buyers came from other parts of Spain.

The researchers were able to verify that they were organized and knew the sites perfectly. They were also looking for the safest way to access so as not to be detected. The vehicles they used were hidden from a distance and they walked to the place to make any police investigation difficult.

In some cases, one of the detainees drove the car to the site, leaving the other members of the group there, to return later to pick them up once they had announced that they had finished.

Once all the members of this criminal network were identified, a device was established on December 2, carrying out nine simultaneous entries and searches in the province of León.

In this way, part of a gold Visigoth crown was intervened, around 6,000 silver coins – denarii and antoninians -, 21 aurei, approximately 1,000 archaeological objects, mostly coins from different periods and materials such as fibulas, spearheads, rings, ceramic pieces.

Electronic devices, various documentation, nine metal detectors, three high-end vehicles and almost 50,000 euros were also seized.